Responsibility
by kira66
Summary: One night changes everything.
1. Chapter 1

"How far along are you?" Nico asked once he and Doctor Santino, _Dani_, were alone in the room; the others had left at the conclusion of the meeting.

Dani blinked slowly and turned her head to face Nico. "Pardon me?" She inquired stupidly. It honestly didn't surprise her that he knew but she wasn't ready to give it up so easily.

Nico tilted his head and dropped into the chair right beside hers; the one recently vacated by the still pining Matt. He gave her a look clearing saying he wasn't buying it. "How far along are you in your pregnancy?" He elaborated when she sat silent and unyielding.

Out of them all Dani knew it would be Nico to figure it out. Even her own family didn't know and frankly she had no idea how to tell them. Then there was the small problem of Matt. She had loved Matt. She really did. But news of her pregnancy would crush him seeing as they broke up because she didn't want anymore kids. It was best to just the bullet, so to speak, when it came to Nico. "Eighteen weeks." She mumbled as she reached down and pulled her purse onto her lap from the floor.

"St. Louis then?" Nico sat back in his chair and regarded the good doctor. He was entering uncharted territory now.

"Yeah." Dani fiddled with the strap of her purse. St. Louis. The faithful trip that left her in this _condition_. They'd been chasing T.K after he flipped his car and fled the scene. Nico because it was his job and Dani because T.K trusted her. How or why he ended up in St. Louis was still a mystery but they had found him in a hotel and it took them over two weeks of threatening, Nico, and reasoning, Dani, to get him to agree to come home. But in that time something happened between the Doctor and the Fixer. It lasted a single night and might have involved heavy amounts of alcohol; she was still fuzzy on the exact details.

Nico nodded and steepled his hands on the conference room table. "And you didn't tell me sooner because it slipped your mind?"

Dani rolled her eyes. "I didn't tell you because I don't expect anything from you. We were both stressed and drunk and out of our minds."

"So you're just going to shoulder all the responsibility? Without even giving me the option?" Nico frowned. "That's terribly unfair of you, Doctor Santino, to assume that I'd want nothing to do with our child just because the night of its conception is a little...hazy."

"Are you telling me you want to be in our sons life?" Dani confused. She was so sure that he'd want nothing to do with the baby that she never let herself consider the possibility.

Nico paused. "A son? We're having a boy?" This was a lot to take in but he had know she was pregnant for a couple weeks now and had gotten used to the idea.

Dani couldn't help but smile. "I had my ultrasound a couple days ago and we are, indeed, having a little boy." She dug around in her purse and pulled out a black and white picture which she handed to Nico.

Taking the picture Nico stared at the crystal clear image. "A son." He was literally speechless.

"You can keep that one I have more." Dani leaned over and pointed out the different features that were clearly defined. After seeing the look on Nico's face she felt bad for not telling him. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you."

Nico waved off her apology as he tucked the precious picture into his jacket pocket. "Your actions were understandable. But now that I know I expect to be kept in the loop at all times. Clear?"

Dani nodded. "Crystal." Sensing an end to the conversation she pushed herself to her feet, pulled her oversized sweater down, and gathered her things to leave.

"Would you like to have dinner with me today?" Nico asked out of the blue. It was pushing eight o'clock and he wasn't ready to part company just yet.

"I'm actually free all evening so I'm all yours Mister Careles." Dani told him with a large smile as they left the conference room and then the stadium together.


	2. Chapter 2

It was pouring down rain when they stepped off the charter at Lambert in the wee hours of the morning. To say that Dani was less than thrilled would have been an understatement. Bleary-eyed she shot a glare at her traveling companion. "Are you sure he's actually here this time?" They'd been traveling non-stop for what felt like days; St. Louis being their second stop and Las Vegas being their first. Needless to say sin-city yielded nothing but disappointed when it was discovered, shortly after landing, that T.K had already hoped on another plane and jetted off to some other unknown city.

"He's here." Nico lead Dani to the waiting car and helped her toss her single, hastily, packed bag into the trunk. "He used his credit card to check into the Hilton about six hours ago. Last the manager checked he was still in his room." He opened the car door and closed it once she was in before getting in the other side. Once his door was shut the car began to make its way away from the airport and towards the hotel; the driver already informed of the route.

Dani sighed and let herself relax into the soft leather of towncars seat. "I should have picked up sooner that T.K had a problem." She mumbled keeping her voice low so that the driver, not that he was paying attention to them, couldn't hear.

Nico was silent for a moment. "No if its anyones fault its mine. I should have known because its my job to know anything and everything pertaining to the Hawks."

"Then lets call it a draw and say we both missed it." Dani was just too tired to argue with him.

"Very well." Nico turned his head and watched the lights pass them by. There was no traffic at this late or early, depending on how you looked at it, hour so they'd make it to the hotel before sun-up and hopefully catch a few, much needed, hours of sleep before confronting the wayward Terrance King.

* * *

As expected the ride to the hotel took half the time it normally would and the car pulled up long before the sun dusted the horizon with its colorful rays.

Dani, tiredly, stumbled from the car and blindly took her bag when Nico handed it to him. She may have been dead on her feet but she'd have to be dead in the ground not to notice how expensive T.K's choice of hotel looked. "Always the king." She mumbled to herself as Nico held the door open for her and she stepped into the chilly interior.

Nico strode ahead and procured the key to the room that was paid for before they even left Las Vegas. "We have the room right across from . It has two double beds and the only room we could get on this floor." He lead the way to the elevator and then to their room. He slid the key card and pushed open the door. Once they were inside he left the feeling of wariness wash over him. Somedays he thought he was getting to old to be a babysitter.

Dropping her only piece of luggage at the door Dani picked the closest bed in the generously sized room and flopped down face first not even bothering to take off her shoes. Sleep claimed her almost instantly.

Raising an eyebrow Nico took the time to _check_ that T.K was still in his room before returning to the shared room, removing Dani's shoes, and dropping onto his own bed. Sleep took longer for him, it always did, but soon he joined his companion in the land of dreams.

* * *

The following two days basically consisted of them talking to T.K through his door. Nico hadn't _checked_ on him again wanting the young man to have a sense of privacy. Dano spent hours sitting on the floor outside the door just talking. Occasionally T.K would contribute to the conversation but more often than not the other side of the door was quiet.

They were a week in when things started to change between Nico and Dani. It was clear that they both held a mutual respect for each other and that paired with them sharing a room and every single meal together just helped things along.

It was after a rather long day of silence from T.K that Dani had slipped away from Nico and started a tab at the hotel bar. She didn't drink much but a glass of wine helped calm her. He found her, of course, after only a few minutes of solitude and made her promise that if she wanted to drink she'd ask him to join her.

* * *

"It's not too late to get help. Real help this time and not the kind of help that Doctor Feel-Good is selling." Dani told the door and gave the staring couple, making their way passed her and to their room, a tight smile. "The shooting and the events that followed were extremely stressful and that coupled with your slow rehabilitation...stronger people than you have slipped into a pill bottle for much lesser things." Almost two weeks and T.K was still not showing any sign that he intended to come home. Dani was beginning to feel at her wits end and she missed her kids dammit! Today she didn't even know if he was even in the room. They had discovered, a couple days ago, that he had managed to find a way to sneak out. But it was encouraging that he always returned and didn't try to run again.

"He in there?" Nico asked as he made his way from the elevator. They had to make progress soon because the team wasn't going to pay their way much longer. As it was they were pushing it but T.K was important to the Hawks so they were given more leeway than most.

Dani sighed and let her head hit against the door with a thud. "No idea. But seeing as I've been talking for..." She glanced down at her watch. "Three hours and have yet to get any form of reply I'm beginning to think nooooo."

Nico shook his head and pulled her to her feet. "We need a break." And they did. For two weeks straight all they did was try to pry T.K out of the room or at least get him to give them a face to face meeting.

"A break?" The idea seemed foreign to Dani's sluggish brain. "What's that?" She squinted at the bright light of the elevator as she was steered inside.

"Its when people who have been working nonstop for days just stop and enjoys themselves." Nico explained patiently with a dash of sarcasm. "And you Doctor Santino deserve it." He lead them into the bar which was surprisingly void of patrons but then again it was just creeping past the noon hour. "For the next couple of hours we are going to just sit here and relax. No work talk at all." Even someone as driven as Nico knew when a break was needed and if the good Doctor didn't get one soon she was going to be completely burnt out by the time they got back to New York with or without Terrance.

Dani breathed out through her nose when the bartender sat down a glass of red wine in front of her. What could it hurt? "Okay then Mister Fixer man." She held up her glass. "May the next couple of hours be completely football free." With a definite nod she downed the entire glass.

Nico took a sip of his newly delivered drink and smirked. "Football free huh?" And so he took another sip to show her he was on board and then another and another.

* * *

A couple of hours of downtime took on a mind of its own and soon two very inebriated Hawk employees were stumbling back to their shared room, hands groping and lips teasing, where they spent an entire day just wrapped up in themselves. They emerged from their alcohol induced slumber, naked, blurry eyed, and very much confused. It took them a moment longer to realize that someone was pounding on their door. Dressing quickly, avoiding looking at each other, Nico reached the door first and yanked it open. "What?!" He barked then winced when it echoed inside his already aching head.

"Rise and shine kids!" Terrance, T.K, King greeted with a smile which only grew wider when he noticed that out of the two beds in the room only one looked to have been slept in. "Doctor D you up?" He hollered into the room when Nico didn't move to invite him in.

"I'm up Terrance." Dani answered in a whisper as she trudged to the door. She ran a hand through her bed hair but gave up trying to fix it. "You ready to talk?"

T.K let out a full belly laugh. "Nope." He put emphases on the 'p'. "I'm actually ready to go home." He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall beside the door. "All your talking, and there was been _a lot_, has gotten me thinking. Rehab doesn't sound like a basketful of puppies but I think I need it." He looked down like a shamed face little boy. "I know I need it." He cleared his throat and looked up, serious T.K retreating once again. "So if you two are done bumping uglies I already settled your tab downstairs and had one of my boys make flight plans. We leave in about..." He looked down at his blinged out watch. "Two hours." Spinning on his heel he ended his room, through his open door, and began to throw his clothes into the single dufflebag he brought with him. Making a face he quickly pulled out his phone and made an appointment with the laundry-service for as soon as he got home. Because damn his clothes smelled nasty.

Nico and Dani packed quickly and quietly. Neither wanting to broach the elephant in the room. It was raining once again when they, along with T.K, boarded a charter back to New York.

Everyone resumed the lives that had been put on hold. Nico went back to the shadows only appearing when trouble arose, T.K started rehab for his addiction to pain killers and ended up paying a fine and damages for crashing his car and fleeing the scene, and Dani surrounded herself with her children, her mother, and all the drama that came with it.

Things were back to normal until Dani came down with the flu that she just couldn't seem to shake. On a whim, just to prove herself wrong, she bought a pregnancy test. "Crap!" And then five more. "Double crap!" There lined up on her sink, glaring at her, taunting her with their double lines, sat six tests. "I'm going to kill T.K!"

* * *

_**Authors Note**_

I honestly have no idea where this chapter came from. I sat down to do something completely different and my fingers just started typing. I don't know how good it is because my muse has been in a dry spell for months and was just happy to be writing again that he might have went a little overboard. Heck he might be out at sea in a dingy for all I know. Anways I'm thinking maybe one more chapter to tie things up and I'll leave it at that.


	3. Chapter 3

Dani would have been lying if she said her relationship with Matt hadn't become awkward and strained once the news of her pregnancy spread. He had been angry, understandably, about the turn of events. And where a once easy flowing working relationship once stood there was silence and thick, angry, tension. But now as she looked through her sweat matted bangs at the sweet man telling her to push she couldn't help but feel that their friendship had taken a turn towards healing. "I am breathing!" She wheezed out and tightened her grip on Matt's hand. "Urg!"

Matt winced when he felt several of the bones in his hand crack but he didn't let go. Just because he thought the whole situation was unfair didn't mean he was going to leave her to do this alone. "Is Nico on his way?" He asked once she lay back, panting, against the pillows of her hospital bed.

"Unless there is an airstrip on the roof of this hospital then no Nico isn't on his way." Dani felt it terribly unfair that Nico wasn't here but he had been called out of town just two days prior to deal with a situation concerning a new draftee's family and the situation had yet to be resolved.

"Does he even know?" Matt racked his brain trying to remember if he had seen Dani call the wayward father-to-be at any point since this whole ordeal began. "Please tell me you called him." He practically begged then groaned at the scathing look she shot his way. He began to fish around in his pants pocket with his free hand for his phone. "He might not kill you but me on the other hand..." He searched through his contacts and dialed the only number he had for the teams fixer. Once he heard Nico's voice pick up on the other end he hurriedly explained what was going on and knew better than to wait for an answer when a moment later the line went dead. "He's on his way." Tucking the phone back into his pocket he continued with his _coaching_ duties. "Just keep breathing you're uh doing fine." He encouraged with a strained smile.

Dani huffed and focused on her breathing just like she had been taught but it wasn't helping and all she wanted to do was push. "How much longer?" She directed the question to the the nurse monitoring her vitals. She groaned when she didn't like the answer. "Hours? You must be kidding me?!"

Matt shook his head and extracted his hand from her grip. "I'm going to go and update your family. Try and get some rest okay?" With that he slipped out of the room.

"Get some rest?" Dani rolled her eyes in exasperation. "He should try resting when a watermelon trying to exit through his yoohoo." She grumbled but slipped off into a light doze all the same. When she awoke again it wasn't Matt by her side but Nico. "How long have I been out?"

"Not very long." Nico ran a wet cloth over her sweaty forehead then took her hand. "Doctor said it won't be long now. You're almost ready."

Dani sighed ready for it to be over. "How'd you get here so fast? Pennsylvania isn't that close."

Nico shrugged. "Perks of having the team helicopter at your disposal. I was in the air just minutes after Donnally called. Speaking of..." He gave her a look.

"Things happened quickly. One minute I'm in a meeting with Coach and Terrance about his rehab reports and the next my water is breaking and Matt is rushing me here." Dani motioned around the state of the art hospital room. Being an employee of the Hawks really did have it perks but each and everyone of them were earned through blood, sweat, and tears. "I just forgot and then I figured you wouldn't be able to get here in time so why make you worry?" That's one thing she had found out about Nico during the course of the pregnancy; he was a nervous nelly. Always worrying about her health and the health of their son.

"You should know by now that I would move heaven and earth to be here. That come hell or highwater I would witness the birth of this child; our child." Nico chided as gently as his temper would allow.

The doctor picked that moment to walk into the room and announce, after checking, that it was time to have the baby. "Alright folks are we ready to meet your son? He's an impatient one and I imagine it won't take long at all for him to make an appearance." Smiling he got into position. "Alright Dani I want you to do as I say. Push!" And with that said the final moments were underway.

Dani pushed when the doctor said and stopped when he commanded. The pain was overwhelming at times but not unexpected and soon a welcoming, angry, cry pierced the chaotic room.

Nico couldn't help but grin when he cut the cord and got the first look at his son. But the precious bundle was whisked away before he got a chance to hold him and he found himself pushed from the room as a frantic doctor began barking orders. Something was wrong. He didn't turn knowing he'd come face to face with a waiting room full of well-wishers. The celebration would have to wait until he knew what was wrong.

"Yo tall, dark, and broody whats the what?" Terrance, _T.K_, King asked from a chair in the corner. To his left and right sat the Santino mini's. On the small loveseat sat Matt and Coach. And across from them in another chair was Angela, Dani's mother.

Before Nico could attempt to answer the doors to the room opened and the doctor stepped out. "You can go in now Mister Careles."

Nico stepped in preparing himself for the worst. "What happened?" He asked the doctor that had followed him back inside.

The doctor patted his shoulder. "There was some bleeding but we were able to get that contained quickly so no damage. I have to tell you in all my years delivering babies this rarely happened." He let out a hearty laugh and motioned to the bed where Dani was holding not one bundle but two. "Your son wanted your daughter to be a surprise. It's rare that we don't detect the second baby at some point through the pregnancy but it would explain some of the readings we were getting that were abnormal. No need to worry all three of them are fine." He excused himself then.

"Twins." Dani breathed when the room was empty except for them. "This is unbelievable."

"Unbelievable is right." Nico stepped up to the bed and took the pink bundle from her mothers arms. "Two babies." He was still getting used to the idea of one and now there was two. "Hello there princess." He mumbled as he stroked a finger up and down his daughters rosy cheek.

Dani motioned with her head to the bedside table. "They left the papers there to fill out. We need to give them names before they go to the nursery." She was sore but the shock of their surprise was overriding the worst of it.

Nico rocked, gently, back and forth. "Nicholas David as we decided." He looked down at his sleeping daughter drawing a blank on what to call her.

"Adah Grace." Dani offered. "Adah means beautiful addition and Grace is pretty self explanatory."

"Adah Grace?" Nico tried the name out several times and found himself liking it. "Adah Grace and Nicholas David it is." He filled out the necessary papers stopping every once in a while to rock the fussing Adah.

The room quickly filled with impatient friends and family. The twins were passed from one person to the next with Ray-Jay and Lindsey cooing over them the longest. T.K announced himself honorary uncle and even disappeared for a bit only to reappear with the entire baby section of the gift shop in tow. No one could chide T.K for his excitement since it was his fault, after all, that the twins came to be.

It was quite late when everyone left the the babies were taken to the nursery. The two new parents were exhausted and soon both were sleeping. Their hands tightly linked. And smiles on their faces.

* * *

**Authors Note**

Well what did you think? This chapter was a pain to write and this is like my 3rd draft and I know its not going to get any better than this. For all intents and purposes it's finished. But if the mood so strikes me I'll do an epilogue so keep watch for that. But no promises.


End file.
